My family and I travel a lot.
We often take long road trips across the country - traveling through empty towns and vast fields of nothing through middle America. Between state landmarks, we camp in the trailer we tow behind us, setting up in Walmart parking lots or KOA sites if we can find them. Between stops we’re usually the only ones on the road.
I spend as much time as I can sleeping. When I’m awake - I spend most of the long hours looking out the window. I used to try to read or play my Gameboy to pass the time, but after a while, everything just made me car sick.
It is during one of these window watching sessions that something odd catches my eye. Past the powerlines, past the wheat fields, I spot something in the distance keeping perfect pace with us. Maybe it’s just a car or truck on a parallel road that, by whatever chance, is perfectly aligned with our trailer. As the sun starts to set, I stop keeping track since it’s starting to strain my eyes. My vision blurs and I can’t help but fall asleep.
I wake to my younger brother pulling my eyelids open with sticky fingers. We’ve pulled into the parking lot of a fast food taco place; the trailer is too much of a hassle for the drive-thru. I look at the green dashboard light. It’s 11:30pm. “I’m awake!” I scream with a start.
As I eat my nachos, I notice something strange. Far down the road, lit by the warm industrial glow of a distant street light on the empty overpass, I see the static outline of a man. He is standing so still, I don’t notice him at first. He is unusually tall - the top of his head almost touches the lamp. I try to wrap my head around what I’m looking at but it doesn’t make sense. It’s probably just my eyes playing tricks in the dark. I shrug it off and finish the last chip at the bottom of the bag. I watch as my parents switch places in the front seat so my mother can take a break from driving and get some rest. By the time I look up again at the overpass, there’s nothing there. Whoever was there is gone now. Before I know it we are back on the road again and I can’t help but fall asleep.
The bright light of morning wakes me. It’s quiet in the car with my little brother still sleeping in his booster seat. I find myself looking out the window for that distant parallel shadow again. I scan the horizon, and sure enough, I spot it. Between the trees, perfectly aligned with our car, is the same shadow as before; only this time, it’s closer. I strain my eyes trying to get a better look, but the trees keep getting in the way. Every time I think I know what I am looking at, another tree interrupts my view -- until we reach the clearing.
As my eyes adjust, my body freezes. In the distance is not another vehicle, but a person, running in pace with us. No, not running… but leaping? Their legs are long and skinny… too skinny… taking long strides over the distance. Their unnatural gait keeps their torso low to the ground. It seems like they are moving in slow motion. They’re tall. Too tall. Judging by the distance, this human-like creature must be about 10 feet high, effortlessly moving in pace even though we must have be going at least 65 miles an hour. I am so paralyzed with the uncanny nature of what I am seeing, I can’t speak. Finally, as we reach another wooded area, the interruption in my line of sight lets me catch my breath. I do my best to say something, anything, to get my parent’s attention. I do what I can to cry out to my sleeping mother in the passenger seat. I am frantic, tightly holding on to the back of her chair. I struggle to get the words out. Stick Legs. Following Us. Too Tall.
She’s still groggy but it’s enough to make her laugh.
“You were dreaming,” she smiles.
My heart is beating so hard and I can feel the pulse in my head. I tell both of my parents to watch horizon when we get to the clearing and they reluctantly agree.
“Now stop yelling or you’ll wake your brother,” my father adds.
I see that we are about to hit another clearing and I begin to hyperventilate. There he is again. Only this time, much closer. I can start to see some of his features now. He has unnaturally long arms to match his stilt-like legs. It’s his face though that scares me the most. He has long, stretched and exaggerated features. His nose is long, skinny, and turned slightly upwards, cartoonish in shape and size. His leaping strides don’t slow with the new terrain.
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I try to scream and my fists pound on the back of her seat in frustration. I open my mouth but nothing comes out. I look to my mother, pleading, but she is more concerned with me then the creature outside the car window.
“Stop it!” She holds my wrists.
“There’s nothing there. There’s nothing there,” my father spews out, frantically looking between the road and out at the tree line.
“Are you okay? What’s going on?” My little brother is awake now, and clings to the sleeve of my sweatshirt.
Then finally:
“We need to pull over.”
I turn towards her in horror and finally find my voice. NO. WE CAN’T STOP. I struggle in her grip, trying again to pound my fists on the back of her seat. I feel my stomach drop as I hear my father turn the hazards on and feel the truck slow. As the tuck and trailer rumble on the shoulder gravel, I am too terrified to look back out the window. I am shaking, my head in my hands as my little brother tries to comfort me, still confused.
I wait. For what, I am not sure. By this time, he should have easily reached us. I slowly turn to the window. There he is, the same distance he was before. Only this time, he is staring directly at me, completely still. I am able to see his entire face clearly now. His bone-white face is unnaturally long and stretches the rest of his features with it. His eyes are too big, stretched with his face, with black thick vertical lines for pupils. His smile… He’s smiling – And a grin painfully stretches from ear to ear…. Or it would. If he had ears. Is it a mask? A costume with stilts?
I am frozen. But so is he. He’s still standing there, unmoved at the same spot in the field, maybe 30 feet away from my window even though it feels as though I’ve been looking at him for what feels like forever. My breathing eventually slows as I wait. And wait. But nothing happens. He is still just staring at the car with the same unnatural expression, long arms at his side, waiting motionless in the tall grass.
The voices in the car come back into focus, and I look around to the rest of my family, who are all looking at me expectantly.
“What happened?” my mother asks, placing a hand on my shoulder from the front seat.
“You don’t see him?” I ask, turning towards the window to find him in the same place, with the same haunting expression.
See who?
But they don’t see him. Of course they don’t. Am I hallucinating? Or still dreaming maybe? It doesn’t feel like a dream though.
Should we call someone? Go to a hospital?
I don’t have any signal.
We’re almost at the campsite, and it’s getting dark. I can make some calls when we get there.
I am hallucinating. That is the only explanation. Some sort of psychotic break caused by a neurological misfire. Easy enough.
My father starts the engine and with a low rumble, pulls the wheel to the left. I take a deep breath and calm my nerves enough to look back out the window again. I watch in my own silent terror as he slowly turns his head to the right. Just as we start to pick up speed, so does he, and I am no longer brave enough to look. I put my head between my knees and hug my legs, ducking low enough that I can’t be seen from outside the window. This is all so wrong. What is wrong with me.
It feels like forever when we finally turn into the gravel road leading to our campsite. I can tell by the fading light on the trailer floor I have been staring at that it is already getting late. We take a couple more slow turns before we make our final stop.
I feel my brother’s little hand starting to pat my back.
“Wake up, wake up,” he whispers, loudly, in my ear.
I take a deep breath and sit up. I see my mother in the front seat waving her phone around in an attempt to find signal. Her hand touches the door handle to get out and I shout at her to stop. I take a deep breath to calm myself and look out the window. It’s dark out, but the moon is bright enough where I can still get a good look. I carefully scan the outside but all I can see are the tall pines surrounding the small campsite. There’s nothing there, the neighboring sites are even empty. I lean over my brother’s side to check his window. He looks with me in an attempt to help. Nothing. The man is gone. I can’t help but smile. It was all in my head.
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“Can I go now?” my mom asks, her hand still on the door handle.
“Is it all clear? The man gone?” asks my father, turning on the cab light.
I hesitate but after taking a final look out all of the windows, I nod. I can’t help but flinch as she opens the door, but nothing happens. She pulls the seat forward to let me out of the truck.
By the time I’m brave enough to get out, my father has already chalked the wheels. I take my first steps, my arms tightly across my chest. I am still looking around for any sign of the strange man as my father lowers the trailer off of the truck. My brother totes behind him, holding the flashlight. I walk around the front of the truck to the other side. Still nothing. I let myself relax.
“How are you feeling?” my mother asks, still stretching her phone around awkwardly. “I can’t get a signal but the office should have a phone. They don’t open until eight though,” she hesitates, “We can drive around to down the road to town and look for a hospital but – ”
I stop her.
“It’s fine. I’m fine. We can go in the morning or something.”
I look around the campsite a final time to reassure myself.
“I feel much better now.”
She seems satisfied with the promise that I’ll go with her tomorrow to town.
We have a quick meal at the kitchen table then wash up for bed. I am completely exhausted from the day and can’t climb up into the bunk soon enough. I crawl up into the cubby-like space and my little brother follows underneath. I have to crouch awkwardly when I get up since the ceiling’s so low. My head hits the pillow and I let the close walls comfort me like a cocoon. I see the lights turn off from the small bunk entrance at my feet and let myself finally close my eyes.
I am not sure how much time has passed but I wake up covered in sweat. This happens often though as there’s little airflow up here. Most Summer nights it’s like a sauna. I absentmindedly open the small window with my right foot, turning the little latch with my toes and pushing out the bottom a crack, hoping to get some of the night air to cool me off.
I push the blankets aside and roll over, trying to get back to sleep when I see something out of the corner of my eye. From the bottom of the window, inches from my feet, I can see long slender gloved fingers, slowly lifting the window further open from the bottom.
I bolt up, lifting my feet towards me and back into the far corner of the bunk. Stupid! Stupid! I scream at myself in my head. I never checked the back of the trailer. I only looked to the left and right but not back by the bunk windows. How could I have been so careless.
I cover my mouth and try to slow my breath. Do I freeze and hope they didn’t see me? Do I scream and risk getting trapped? I eye the exit at the bottom of the bunk. I could try and slide out the bottom but then he would be able to easily spot me through the window. As my mind races, I hear a small noise beneath me. My little brother is turning in his sleep.
I am not alone here.
I have to warn them.
If I am able to sneak out of the bunk and wake them up without panicking them, maybe we have a chance to all escape. I start to silently scoot down further towards the foot of the bunk then freeze. I can see his fingers now coming through the window and sliding across the top of the bed. The top of his head follows, bending and twisting unnaturally to fit through the slender crack.
I have to do something, anything to pull attention to me instead. Anything to stall this man – this creature – from getting to the rest of my family.
I have to scream.
I open my mouth, heart pounding in my head, but nothing comes out but a tiny whimper. His head and chest have now cleared the window and he is pulling himself up. The light of the moon shines off the back of his head and I see his powdery white skin is dry, fragile even, reminding me of my great grandpa when I saw him on his deathbed. It’s not a mask.
I catch my breath and am about to try to scream again but I freeze. He is slowly turning towards me now, his strange distorted features even more sinister in the light of the moon. The sickly smile reveals large, jagged wooden teeth, darkened with age. His huge eyes are painfully bulging out of his skin and his long black pupils stare into me, unblinking. I watch in horror as he places a white gloved finger to his mouth. Shh.
“No!” I finally scream, “No, no, no!”
I kick my legs out frantically but, before I can make an impact, he grabs my ankles. He’s pulling me out of the window. I desperately claw at the frame, shrieking, but my palms are too sweaty and I can’t get a good enough grip to pull myself back inside. My hands slip and I am in the air. Then CRACK! as my head hits the hard ground.
I black out.
My eyes open, but my vision is blurred. I can just make out the outline of the tall man, pulling my ankles behind him, but it’s nearly impossible to stay focused with the constant throbbing of my head. He’s dragging me through tall, uncut grass. My arms are weak but I make an effort to grip some nearby reeds, only to have it cut my palms like razor. I try, using all of my strength to sit up and grab at his hands, but it is too much for my body. I get dizzy again.
I black out.
I wake to cicadas. The loud buzzing in my ear causes me to start swiping at my face and I sit up. I am still in the tall, dry grass... only it’s morning now. The back of my head is still throbbing and I reach through my hair only to find dried speckled blood on my hand. My glove. I am wearing white gloves. He must have put them on me for some twisted reason.
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I do my best to stand up. It takes a couple tries since my legs are shaky and it’s difficult to keep my balance. I look around and find myself in an empty overgrown field. I scan the horizon but no landmarks pop out.
In the distance, I can just make out a highway. I start walking towards it when I see a vehicle coming through the wavy mirage of the pavement. It’s the trailer – our trailer. They’re leaving without me. I have to catch them. I start to run, stumbling at first, but my long legs finally find their stride. In the window, clear as day, I can him. The long faced man is smiling at me. He’s taunting me. Maybe I can cut them off if I’m fast enough. I just have to keep running.
I have to catch him. I have to catch him. I have to catch him.
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